FULFILLING OUR TAX OBLIGATIONS IS MORE THAN NECESSARY IN TIMES LIKE THIS

Presenting his State of the Nation Address on Tuesday, President Nana Addo Danwa Akufo-Addo highlighted a string of important initiatives that his government is putting in place to roll out the ‘Second Year of Roads’ agenda, in addition to enhancing other existing initiatives in all the sectors of the economy.

If we would be sincere with ourselves, this is a government that has not been unduly ruthless with the people in matters of taxation, having elected to ignite productivity, primarily, as a philosophy to economic growth.

By that philosophy, the government has invested heavily in almost all the sectors, including agriculture, health and education as well as social protection.

Redeeming ourselves

Having scored remarkably well in all of these areas, what needs to be done, in moving forward to sustain our developmental agenda, is to generate more revenue for national development.

During the President’s first term in office, the priorities were how to redeem ourselves from an IMF programme and prove how credible we are as development partners and global actors in a sub-region that has potential for development.

Thankfully, as a result of efficient planning, restructuring of the economy, all based on government’s fair understanding of the dynamics of development and partnerships, we have become a more credible continental, sub-regional and global actor.

Benefits

Our success story has resulted in the increasing numbers in global businesses trooping to Ghana to invest here. It has also manifested in growth, particularly in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, which are major drivers of the economy.

As we would admit, never before in the history of this nation has our commitment to budgetary allocations to several sectors been so maximal and transformational.

That is a huge feat we must applaud government for, particularly in the light of the fact that we were just exiting from an IMF programme.

Covid-19 strains and stresses

Looking back at the pressures which the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked on global businesses, with global repercussions on smaller economies like ours, it is interesting how we managed to weather the storm and modestly grew our economy.

But this was because, like the President rightly stated, we had enough of reserves to enable us stay resilient, without succumbing to food security challenges.

All these gains were aside of financial and other forms of support which government offered businesses under social protection and rescue programmes.

Consummating development

That is why we agree with the Minister of Information on the need for ordinary citizens to fall in step with formalisation measures that government will be putting in place to lessen the burden of paying taxes to support the economic growth and development.

Again, having scored immense success in our bid to generate a national data to facilitate national development, the responsibility now lies with us as citizens to be compliant as those measures roll out.

In this regard, instead of revenue leaking into the pockets of unscrupulous citizens for their comfort, it will be secured to fund our health and education safety net programmes as well as aid in funding infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, hospitals and markets.

Galvanising informal sectors

Considering that we have a huge informal economy we must deal with, it is therefore imperative that we work together with the Trades Union Congress, which now has working relations with that sector, in designing structures for fulfilling tax obligations.

As far as we are able to show what benefits such groups may derive from such engagements, it is our opinion that our collective goals in that direction will be attained earlier than we even expect, especially when it is on record that groups like the Greater Accra Tomato Traders Association now have a tax payment system with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly in which levies are daily remitted to the assembly on truck by truck basis.

Replicated on markets, we believe such simple arrangements should enable government through, the assemblies, to deliver on its responsibilities in revenue generation, as citizens comply.